London cabbies in legal fight against TfL over 'extortionate' licence fee hike

Private hire operators have launched legal action against Transport for London

The capital’s private hire operators have launched legal action against Transport for London in a bid to overturn an “extortionate” hike in licensing fees.

The Licensed Private Hire Car Association has applied for a judicial review to halt moves that would see five-year licences leap 12,000 per cent in price.

TfL claims the rises reflect the costs of licensing and enforcement. The LPHCA, representing about 200 operators, says TfL has appointed too many enforcement officers, which it needs to fund.

The rises, after a five-year freeze, relate to the number of cars run by the city’s 2,400 operators. Those running 101 to 500 cars will see fees rise by 5,200 per cent from £2,826 to what the LPHCA calls an “extortionate” £150,000.

Operators with 501 to 1,000 cars could see their bill jump from £2,826 to £350,000 over five years, while those with 1,001 to 10,000 cars will see their bill go up by 12,000 per cent from £2,826 over five years to £700,000.

Operators have launched a fund to finance legal action. LPHCA chairman Steve Wright said: “It feels as though TfL is trying to close most of the business down with these eye-watering rises, so that there are only a few big firms and a few small ones left. We are in the middle of a war.”

The GMB union, which represents many of London’s estimated 116,000 private hire drivers, said costs would be passed on to drivers. A spokesman said the rises would put some 500 operators and 30,000 drivers out of business.

Jimmy Lazarou, head of Crawfords, which runs 200 vehicles, said: “Firms, such as ours, which are law-abiding, are not part of the problem.”

TfL said: “There has been a huge growth in the industry. The licence fee changes reflect the costs to TfL of regulation and associated enforcement activity.

"Changes to fees will fund compliance officers who do a crucial job in driving up standards.

"We have listened to the views of stakeholders in the consultation and amended the proposed fees structure ... we consider the changes to fees to be proportionate.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in